Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 11)

It has been a busy few days and time has been rather minimal to update the pool and the blog fully, so some quick updates are below. A couple of them may have warranted their own post, but for time purposes (and a little bit of desire issues), we'll wrap them up in the quick notes today.  Things might turn around for the end of the week, but since we're wrapping up some of the busy season, I won't be making much for promises.

The injury situation is all over the map in Detroit, as the Red Wings are having their share of problems, with a little bit of good news sprinkled in for flavour. First, the good news, as Pavel Datsyuk returned from his upper-body injury (believed to be a concussion) on Tuesday night, missing seven games in the process.  On Wednesday, the Red Wings announced that they placed Henrik Zetterberg on the Long Term Injured Reserve, retroactive to last week, which means the team expects him to miss the balance of 10 games, minus those he has already missed.  Zetterberg has been dealing with back problems and it likely isn't getting any better.  Shifting Zetterberg to a cap-savings position has allowed the team to call up goaltender Petr Mrazek, which has people wondering if Jimmy Howard is not well after playing on Tuesday night.  The early indications is that Howard is suffering from a knee problem, so Mrazek is up just in case.

Ryan V. received both the good news and half of the bad news, as he has Datsyuk and Howard on his team, while Tony didn't get any good news, as he only had Zetterberg.  Both teams are not very high up in the standings and the news isn't going to boost their standing.  This is a rough bit of news, for sure.

Not long after being a healthy scratch, Edmonton Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry is now on the shelf, dealing with a head injury.  There are some suggestions that he suffered a bit of a concussion or at least some headaches.  Petry is considered to be day-to-day and should be back in the Oilers' line-up again soon.

Petry is an underachieving defenseman on Doug K.'s team this year, having only scored 6 points this season.  Doug is working his way back into the rest of the field from the bottom of the standings, but Petry wasn't helping too much to begin with.

The flu bug continues to make its rounds in the NHL, as Craig Smith of the Nashville Predators was another pool player stricken with the ailment on Tuesday night.  There haven't been many cases that have lasted more than one game, so I don't think it is unfair to think that this one should be any different.  Smith is listed as out day-to-day and should be considered probable for their next game, Thursday, home to the Stars.

It's a blip on the season for Derek Wilton, who is having a decent Week Eleven, thus far.  Derek has picked up 10 points in the week and is approaching the top half of the standings with a little bit of momentum.

The Islanders are in the middle of some serious struggles and they are enlisting some new blood, while demoting Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who hasn't quite worked out for them of late.  Bouchard was placed on waivers on Monday, cleared waivers on Tuesday and was subsequently demoted to Bridgeport of the AHL.  If I had to guess, his stock may have fallen to the point that there might be a few more young players that would get the nod ahead of him before he would be called up to cover any unforeseen circumstances, like injuries.

Bouchard's slot may be a black hole of skater games for Kristy & Don, as they won't be collecting much of anything from the veteran pivot.  The pool's duo only have a projected game total of 27 for the rest of the week, one of the lowest totals in the pool at the moment.

If there was any doubts that Ryan Callahan wouldn't make it to the 2014 injury prone list in the Summer before, a third injury this season is going to solidify that position.  Callahan is now expected to miss the next 4-to-6 weeks with a sprained MCL in his knee and he is all but useless to the pool for the rest of the second segment, it would seem.  Callahan has managed to play in 24 games for the Rangers this year, scoring 7 goals and 6 assists.

When Callahan has been in the line-up for Cindy, he has only been mediocre, at best.  This injury will see to it that he isn't considered a good pick at all and this will hurt the overall scope of Cindy's season, as we're still six weeks away from the second Waiver Draft.

The NHL Department of Player Safety has been busy of late, dealing with some pool players, as well as some others in the past few weeks.  On Wednesday, they suspended Ottawa Senators defenseman Jared Cowen for two games, following a hit on Buffalo's Zemgus Girgensons in Tuesday night's game.  Cowen was not a repeat offender, there was no injury on the play, nor was there a penalty, but supplemental discipline did catch him and he will sit the next couple of games.

Cowen has had a disappointing year in Ottawa, so far in 2014, scoring only 3 goals and 3 assists in 31 games.  Cowen belongs to Clayton, who ranks 7th in the standings after Tuesday night, 10 points out of the prizes.